I’ve an old George Cloos piccolo which has great tuning, very light, plays like nobody’s business - but it has a very sensitive 2nd octave F#, which is prone to overblowing to some hideous 3rd octave note. Is there a fix for this problem, perhaps a new headjoint? Is it a problem with full size flutes sometimes? (Some of my old flutes have a touchy 2nd oct. E) It’s a bit better with the head all the way in.
Get a new one! You say. As it happens I have a Boosey + Hawkes in the mail, my first English picc.
As a wild shot in the dark, I’d guess you’ve got a tiny leak, causing the F# to be vented up into the stratosphere. I’d check everything with the suck test, especially the tenon. On non-wood instruments I’ve used soapy water and looked for bubbles, but you’d better wait for the pros to chime in before going there. Best of luck!
in boehm’s book “flute and flute playing,” he recommends using cigarette smoke in the foot joint to check for leaks. i, however, was distressed at the concept.
This is probably a leaky pad, but there are also some other things it could be.
Check the headjoint cork and make sure it’s tight and is sealing completely. Also make sure your tuning slide or a tenon cork isn’t leaking.
Check the embouchure carefully to make sure there are no hairline cracks in the wood by the embouchure…this can cause all sorts of hard-to-diagnose problems.
You didn’t mention if this is a simple system piccolo or if it has a more complex key mechanism. If the latter, one or more keys with an improper vent height could cause the problem you describe.
Finally, check the pads and make sure none of them have lose leather or skin which could “buzz”. This also is a very tricky problem to diagnose as it can cause a multitude of sound problems, all nasty.
Boehm-system piccolos have a wide (and usually well-earned) reputation as being some of the hardest woodwind instruments to work on…only the oboe family is considered harder to work on. In particular, the high (third octave) B-natural is a real beast to get right and some piccolos just won’t play it at all no matter how close you get your tolerances.
By the way, if you don’t smoke, no worries. A good feeler guage is just as good as smoke, in my opinion, for finding leaks. Also you can try a leak light, which is a bright like on a narrow stem that can be inserted in the bore. I’d rather look for light than smoke any day, myself.
–James
How’s a feeler gauge going to find a leak? I’ve read about the bore lights. If I quit smoking someday perhaps I’ll “Cough up” the cash for one. But no, I’ve blown a few draughts of pipe smoke into this thing and it doesn’t look to be leaking much at all.
It simply seems that Cloos designed the thing to be blown very gently. It’s your rounded rectangle embouchure, I’ve rotated it all over the place, too. Hard to control when you roll the high F - Cloos didn’t have this sort of thing in mind I suppose.